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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General
The boat journey is central to the narrative of Mediterranean
migration of the undocumented. The boat itself is flimsy, fragile,
unstable, and easily breakable. It is trifling and insubstantial.
But it has captured the attention of the world - after all, the
boat and its aftermath have produced recurring images of migrants
washing up along southern Europe's picturesque beaches in the
visual archive of undocumented migration. But the boat has also
sharply put into relief the divides of the Mediterranean. After
all, the few miles of the Mediterranean separating Africa's
northern shore and Europe's southern shore is a common observation
in migrant narratives. At the same time, they also reflect on how
the Mediterranean has been imagined as starkly divided into two
incommensurable spaces and civilizational models - North and South
(in actuality, by colonial powers in the modern period). Much
Mediterranean migrant literature indeed captures the
Mediterranean's fossilized binaries, North and South. But, The
Two-Edged Sea also reveals that one inheres within the other. While
the book explores two Mediterraneans, with asymmetrical power
relations that reflect the sea's northern and southern shores, it
also delves into how they are and have been in dialogue with each
other, effectively deconstructing the binary.
First published in 1963, F.F. Bruce's work Israel and the Nations
has achieved wide recognition as an excellent introduction to the
history of Israel. This new edition, revised by David F. Payne,
includes some new material and an updated bibliography.
Written in the 1990s after retirement from his services as a doctor
and discovered by his daughter in the loft of their house in
Darjeeling in India in 2017, this memoir of Dr. Tsewang Yishey
Pemba provides an intricate portrayal of early twentieth-century
Tibet. With his finger on the pulse of the Tibetan ethos, Pemba
offers glimpses into the traditional sociology of Tibet and
occasionally its snail-paced reforms, as well as the British Raj in
India, while recollecting his young days in his native country.
Pemba also draws information from prized sources like his fathers
diaries and his conversations with Tibetan and British officials as
well as people at the grassroots. His own metamorphosis, as he
leaves Tibet in 1949 for higher education abroad, foreshadows the
metamorphosis of Tibet and its inescapable fate in the decade that
followed.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Turkey relentlessly persecuted any
form of Kurdish dissent. This led to the radicalisation of an
increasing number of Kurds, the rise of the Kurdish national
movement and the PKK's insurgency against Turkey. Political
activism by the Kurds or around Kurdish-related political demands
continues to be viewed with deep suspicions by Turkey's political
establishment and severely restricted. Despite this, the
pro-Kurdish democratic movement has emerged, providing Kurds with a
channel to represent themselves and articulate their demands. This
book is timely contribution to the debate on the Kurds' political
representation in Turkey, tracing the different forms it has taken
since 1950. The book highlights how the transformations in Kurdish
society have affected the types of actors involved in politics and
the avenues, organisations and networks Kurds use to challenge the
state. Based on survey data obtained from over 350 individuals,
this is the first book to provide an in-depth analysis of Kurdish
attitudes from across different segments of Kurdish society,
including the elite, the business and professional classes, women
and youth activists. It is an intimate portrait of how Kurds today
are dealing with the challenges and difficulties of political
representation.
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